Get Gary Fit

2018 Fit Goals

Tue, 28 Nov 2017 13:05:35 -0500

So where did 2017 go? I’m not sure either. I think into a pack of Oreos.

It’s that time again, to set the fit goals. ( Previous years: May 4, 2016, April 4, 2015, April 3, 2014, Mar 7, 2013, Aug 9, 2012, July 9, 2011, April 10, 2010 ) The first of May, a little later than I like, but better to get it written down for the year. That being said, this will be my ninth year of [trying to] eat healthy and being conscious about my health in general.

I’m pretty sure that I did a bit of stress eating in 2017. Let’s be real. I set an all-time personal weight gain record of 191 lbs! ( so not proud of this ) In December 2013, I was running, shattered my kneecap and broke my shoulder on the concrete. I lost a lot of muscle mass. Three inches in circumference! Recovery has been slow. I’ve felt discouraged. I am starting the process to get a doctor’s opinion if going back on physical therapy is right for me.

Starting weight: 182 lbs. Before pics.

Sept 25th 2009, I reached my 10 pound milestone. It felt great.
Nov 20th 2009, I reached my 20 pound milestone. Amazed.
March 2nd 2010, I finally hit my 30 pound milestone. Motivated.
Sept 24th 2011, I hit my 130s, or 40 pound milestone. Wow.
April 7th 2013, I hit the 40 pound milestone again. Back on track.
Dec 9th, 2013, Had an injury. Gained 23 lbs. ( T: 168lbs ) Lost muscle.

At my lowest weight, October 16th 2011, I was 137, which happens to be 45 pounds lost. At the time of this writing I weigh 165.5 pounds.

No progress last year. gained 9 pounds.

Overarching Life Goals
In regards to this blog, I essentially have two overarching life goals. As seen in the sidebar ( a daily reminder ). Below are my goals for each area:

Eat healthy - Start Date: 9/21/09
Exercise - Start Date: 4/5/10

Healthy Eating Goals
Except for planned cheat days, I do not drink sugar based sodas; and those are usually Coca-Cola de Mexico as it has cane sugar instead of HFCS. For 2017, I’m going to alternate drinking Coke Zero, tea, and water.

The food and supplement goals this year are:

21 Day Sugar Detox - Indefinitely
Maintain the Food Schedule - Weekly
B-Complex, Vitamin-D, and other supplements

Body Goals
Instead of calling them exercise goals, these are my body goals. The continued focus is improving my body and learning to love me at every stage.

Get body fat down ( it’s currently 34%! )
Decrease body fat while increasing muscle
Get physical therapy for my knee
Use a MedGem device or similar to measure resting metabolic rate.

Going Forward
Be mindful of stress.
Be mindful of what I eat and remember to exercise.

For those times where I feel overwhelmed, get the anxiety out by exercise. Stress and food seem to go hand in hand for me. I have to remember that comfort via food is only temporary but the effects on my body are longer lasting. Even when it is hard to do so.

This is an investment in my future self.

Adding Elysium Basis to the regimen. Message me if you want a...

Thu, 05 May 2016 15:53:26 -0400

Adding Elysium Basis to the regimen. Message me if you want a coupon code. Any favorite supplements? #getgaryfit

2016 Fit Goals

Wed, 04 May 2016 14:08:53 -0400

It’s that time again, right on schedule, to set the fit goals. ( Previous years: April 4, 2015, April 3, 2014 Mar 7, 2013, Aug 9, 2012, July 9, 2011, April 10, 2010 ) The first of May, a little later than I like, but better to get it written down for the year. That being said, this marks my seventh year of eating healthy and being conscious about my health in general.

Is this part of getting older? This is the third time in seven years that I’ve gone over 162 lbs, again, this time, setting an all-time rebound record of 182 lbs! February and April of this year, I did the 21 Day Sugar Detox diet. I lost it back down to 162, but then gained it back in a month to be 172. I’m hovering there now. In December 2013, I was running to the bus, shattered my kneecap and broke my shoulder on the concrete. I lost a lot of muscle mass. Three inches in circumference! Recovery has been slow. I’ve felt discouraged. I am considering getting a second opinion on the injury and going in just to ensure that everything is healing properly.

For men, a drop in testosterone as they age can cause bone loss. Mine was way too early but those were the facts. Very low. Explains why I shattered my kneecap so easily. My endocrinologist has been really helpful. My hormones were totally out of whack. Now they are stabilized into the ballpark that we want them to be in!

Starting weight: 182 lbs. Before pics.

At my lowest weight, October 16th 2011, I was 137, which happens to be 45 pounds lost. At the time of this writing I weigh 165.5 pounds.

No progress last year. gained 7.2 pounds.

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

Up and down. Rinse and repeat. Must keep pushing forward. I am not like you, if I have cake and ice cream, I will gain 5 pounds. Done. I don’t care what you say about it because you are basing it on your own body’s tolerance to eating junk food. For me, I will forever be eating “different” than everyone else.

Why?

New research is out and it’s sad yet validating.

Since this diet my body has fought to get back to 182 pounds. To even get close to my goal weight, I was working out 5 days a week, doing high-intensity training. I felt fatigued. All. The. Time.

“It has to do with resting metabolism, which determines how many calories a person burns when at rest. When the show began, the contestants, though hugely overweight, had normal metabolisms for their size, meaning they were burning a normal number of calories for people of their weight. When it ended, their metabolisms had slowed radically and their bodies were not burning enough calories to maintain their thinner sizes.”
- Dr. Hall, an expert on metabolism at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

That’s right, once you start losing weight, your resting metabolism starts adjusting to get you to gain the weight back and reach equilibrium.

As the years went by and the numbers on the scale climbed, the contestants’ metabolisms did not recover. They became even slower, and the pounds kept piling on. It was as if their bodies were intensifying their effort to pull the contestants back to their original weight.

Will use a MedGem device or similar to measure resting metabolic rate.

This allows you to see if you are eating too much, too little, and what accurately your body needs to maintain itself. If results are normal and you are eating properly, the math adds up, then hormones ( thyroid or testosterone ) may be out of whack. This can be a tool to point that out.

By the season’s finale, they had almost no leptin at all, which would have made them ravenous all the time.

Leptin is a hormone that controls hunger. With weight loss, leptin levels fall and people become hungry. Must find a way to increase leptin or trick my body into not being hungry because of lack of leptin.

But Dr. Ludwig said that simply cutting calories was not the answer.
He analyzed data from a clinical trial in which people took a diabetes drug, canagliflozin, that makes them spill 360 calories a day into their urine, or took a placebo.
But for every five pounds they lost, they were, without realizing it, eating an additional 200 calories a day.

That’s incredible. Both the slowing down of the metabolism + the body pushing them subconsciously to eat more calories, created weight gain. It’s not simple math like what used to be taught. “Calories in, calories out.” Many factors are at play in our complex bodies.

Not as simple as pure willpower.

Overarching Life Goals
In regards to this blog, I essentially have two overarching life goals. As seen in the sidebar ( a daily reminder ). Below are my goals for each area:

Eat healthy - Start Date: 9/21/09
Exercise - Start Date: 4/5/10

Healthy Eating Goals
Except for planned cheat days, I do not drink sugar based sodas; and those are usually Coca-Cola de Mexico as it has cane sugar instead of HFCS. For 2016, I’ll try again, caffeine addiction is real, there will be no Coke Zero or any artificially sweetened sodas. Just sparkling water, tea, and more water. This is big for me. It’s hard. For as long as there has been Coke Zero, I have been drinking it. Latest research on the topic:

The food and supplement goals this year are:

21 Day Sugar Detox - Indefinitely
Maintain the Food Schedule - Weekly
Eat healthy, always.
B-Complex vitamins
Fish Oil
Elysium Basis - metabolic repair & optimization ( $10 off coupon code )

Body Goals
Instead of calling them exercise goals, I’m going to call these my body goals. The continued focus is improving my body and learning to love me at every stage.

Get body fat down to 14%
Decrease body fat while increasing muscle
Build muscle back in my knee so that they are even
Measure resting metabolic rate, accurately $$$

Going Forward
I just have to maintain. Be mindful of stress. Realize that it’s happening in the moment. Be mindful of what I eat and remember to exercise. For those times where I feel overwhelmed, get the anxiety out by exercise. Stress and food seem to go hand in hand for me. I have to remember that comfort via food is only temporary but the effects on my body are longer lasting. Even when it is hard to do so.

For once in my life, I want to see abs. I’ve had a stomach pooch for as long as I can remember even with varying degrees of weight loss. Part of me wants liposuction but I’m not sure that’s the best thing to do.

What I can do is be mindful.

This is an investment in my future self.

Temptation of a Zebra

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 22:44:26 -0500

I think one of the key points to losing weight that I always overlooked was that I kept telling myself that I denied myself of something delicious.

“Can’t have a cake pop, you need to lose weight.” Then I was keeping a mental record of each of those cake pops, or donuts, or zebra cakes. By cheat day, I would go “oh well, I didn’t eat ten zebra cakes this week so now I can cheat by eating this one!” It felt like it was adding up, which put undue stress on myself.

I did some reading on decision fatigue awhile back, which states that eventually one can drain one’s self of the willpower to say no. However, recent research suggests that, “People who instead believe that self-control is an infinite resource are less likely to show effects of ego depletion—they actually show increased performance on self-control tests…”

By being mindful or present, I am no longer keeping track of all the past “no"s that I told myself. I continue to be strong with the goal of being in the best shape that I can do. By focusing on the goal and not the restrictions, I put myself in a better place to keep the momentum going.

Disclaimer: Zebra Cakes are tasty in moderation. I’m a big fan. However, I know I’m the type of person who doesn’t eat just one. I eat the whole box.

All time low ( high? )

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 08:38:13 -0400

Well I crossed the threshold of 176 lbs and it has been teetering between that and 179. That’s the highest my weight has been in 6 years.

Felt a bit defeated after I shattered my kneecap. Stress + emotional eating + hormonal imbalance has lead to weight gain.

However, instead of being more sad about it. I’m going to grab it by the horns and get this under control.

This morning I did the T25 workouts. They are great because they have the modifier version which is less impact on your knees yet the same intensity. Going to try that until I feel more confident to up it to full-throttle high intensity.

Do not want to gain any more weight. Can’t fit into most of my clothes now. Have got to burn it off again. Keep going.

2015 Fit Goals

Sat, 04 Apr 2015 14:41:17 -0400

Once again, right on schedule, it is time to set the fit goals. ( Previous years: April 3, 2014 Mar 7, 2013, Aug 9, 2012, July 9, 2011, April 10, 2010 ) The first of April will work. It isn’t summer yet! That being said, this marks my sixth year of eating healthy and being conscious about my health in general.

Is this part of getting older? This is the second time in six years that I’ve went over 162 lbs, this time setting an all time rebound record of 170 lbs. In December 2013, I was running to the bus, shattered my kneecap and broke my shoulder on the concrete. I lost a lot of muscle mass. Three inches in circumference! Recovery has been slow. Too slow. Emotions have ranged and at times I’ve felt discouraged.

Starting weight: 182 lbs. Before pics.

At my lowest weight, October 16th 2011, I was 137, which happens to be 45 pounds lost. At the time of this writing I weigh 165.5 pounds.

Not much progress in a year besides gaining net 3 pounds.

Lessons from Injury, Part Two

Over the past year. I’ve been trying my best to gain back muscle. I did therapy, I went to the gym, and I even got two trainers. I was working out to the point where one trainer told me that I should be careful not to over train.

Finally, my doctor referred me to an endocrinologist. We found out some very interesting data. My hormones were total out of whack. Not only that but my protein levels were low. Which was odd because I was drinking two protein shakes a day and eating large amounts of protein. No wonder I couldn’t gain muscle mass! So now I’m on the right track with meds, hoping that hormone levels will even out, and everything gets balanced back to normal.

Overarching Life Goals
In regards to this blog, I essentially have two overarching life goals. As seen in the sidebar ( a daily reminder ). Below are my goals for each area:

Eat healthy - Start Date: 9/21/09
Exercise - Start Date: 4/5/10

Healthy Eating Goals
Except for planned cheat days, I do not drink sugar based sodas; and those are usually Coca-Cola de Mexico as it has cane sugar instead of HFCS. For 2015, there will be no Coke Zero or any artificially sweetened sodas. Just sparkling water, tea, and more water. This is big for me. For as long as there has been Coke Zero, I have been drinking it. Latest research on the topic:

Last year I accomplished:

~~30 Days of no diet soda~~ - March 2014!
Be able to run again - It was a bit wobbly but I did it!

The food goals this year are:

21 Day Sugar Detox - May
Maintain the Food Schedule - Weekly
Eat healthy, always.

Body Goals
Instead of calling them exercise goals, I’m going to call these my body goals. The continued focus is improving my body and learning to love me at every stage.

Get body fat down to 14%
Decrease body fat while increasing muscle
Build muscle back in my knee so that they are even

Going Forward
Noticing that October - February is the hardest time for me to be mindful of what I eat and to exercise. Perhaps it is the weather, holidays, and temptations that present themselves during the season. Stress and food seem to go hand in hand to me. I need to remember that comfort from food is only temporary but the effects on my body are longer lasting. Even when it is hard to do so.

For once in my life, I want to see abs. I’ve had a stomach pooch for as long as I can remember even with varying degrees of weight loss. This will be one of my motivations.

I will master this.

Wed, 15 Oct 2014 22:57:34 -0400

I will master this.

The new normal? No.

Sun, 05 Oct 2014 23:13:20 -0400

I have to keep reminding myself that my current state is not permanent. I’m recovering from an injury, building muscle, and pushing to eat healthy.

The thigh muscle’s condition will change. It will get better. I have to remind myself that continuing to exerciser the muscle will help to build back the muscle that atrophied while in the hospital.

I can do this. One step and one day at a time.

Ethiopian beef tips with chopped spinach and hearts of palm...

Thu, 25 Sep 2014 19:04:05 -0400

Ethiopian beef tips with chopped spinach and hearts of palm purée by Power Supply. So good!

Today I said NO.

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 21:37:20 -0400

A few days ago, I went into the corner store craving a snack. Instead of buying something processed I bought a banana.

Went to Starbucks with a coworker today and got unsweetened iced tea. I REALLY wanted a cake pop. Like four of them. I resisted and… got a banana. They had them on the counter.

This is working. It helps. Bananas on every counter!

Then today for dinner, out with friends, I had steamed shrimp and a salad. Waitress came around with the tray asking who wants dessert. It’s amazing how much of a struggle it was. They looked so good! Then I remembered, this is only temporary. This feeling will pass and just wait until Sunday for a cheat day.

Sure enough, I talked myself out of it.

Have to remember that for food, especially the bad kind, it’s okay to say no. Think longevity instead of brevity.

The Cost of Being Healthy

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 08:46:00 -0400

People tend to say that eating healthy is expensive and hard to do. You also know what is expensive? Medical bills and lots of them. It really is a trade off. Do you want to invest more now in the present to continue to feel healthy in your future.

Simple as that.

I did an experiment two years ago to see how much I was spending on food. I used Mint.com to analyze the data. I found out the following. ( The numbers aren’t actual but close enough. )

How did this effect my health?

Going out to eat = weight gain.
Cooking at home = weight loss.
Not being mindful = weight gain.

I do enjoy cooking but not all the time. I’m single and I live alone so there tends to be lots of leftovers. When I make meatloaf, I eat meatloaf for days.

New Experiment

Last year, I tried Power Supply and loved them. However, the meals started to repeat. Decided to give them another try. I love it! They have bulked up on chefs now and have 3 different meal lines. Variety for days. They offer mixetarian ( light on the protein ), paleo, and vegetarian.

My new experiment is to try them on and off. Cook at home for a week, let them cook for a week, and repeat.

It works out nice. Cheaper than eating out in the city and I get healthy portion controlled fresh meals. It really is win win.

We’ll see how this latest tweak to the experiment goes. Should be more sustainable.

Get Gary Fit turned 5 today! Wow time does fly by.

Tue, 23 Sep 2014 09:56:56 -0400

Get Gary Fit turned 5 today!

Wow time does fly by.

Drinking Diet Soda and Not Losing Weight? Blame Your Gut Bacteria

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 21:22:01 -0400

Drinking Diet Soda and Not Losing Weight? Blame Your Gut Bacteria:

First, they found that mice given water laced with artificial sweeteners developed glucose intolerance. This was not the case for mice given plain old water or (surprisingly) sugar water.

Must Everything Contain Sugar?

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 12:46:00 -0400

Today for lunch, trying to be healthy, ( I forgot to make Mini Mexi Meatloaves before bed last night ) I ordered the Uptown salad at Potbelly.

I didn’t think of the cranberries and grapes that were included. Without the dressing, the sugar total is 28g of sugar! Most of it was from the cranberries. The grapes were only 10g. With the Potbelly Vinnagarette the grand total comes to 34g! That is like a soda! Oh but lettuce, you say! Right.

Well, I lasted 3 days with being sugar free. Going to keep at it. This proves how things sneak up in our day-to-day diet. It also reassures me to keep cooking for myself.

Weighed myself this morning. In 3 days I lost 6 pounds. I must have been retaining water, seriously bloated, or something. Either way, I’ll take it!

Image Source

Fed Up

Tue, 16 Sep 2014 20:41:00 -0400

Pretty much sums how I feel about my weight, the injury, and my road to recovery. Honestly, it has taken longer than I wanted it to. I’m going to get some testing done. Pre-injury I noticed that it took enormous amounts of effort to add muscle and maintain it. As soon as I slipped with the effort just a little the muscle would atrophy away. It’s like I don’t hold onto protein well. I want to know why.

The Documentary
Recently watched the documentary “Fed Up”. This was narrated by Katie Couric. It provided some solid research on sugar addiction, lack of good nutritious food, and the politics that are played in regards to the food industry’s lobbying. Highly recommended to watch.

Mindfulness
Continuing to be mindful about what I put in my body. Noticed I’ve been eating to many sweets at work. They bring in free donuts every day, various sodas are there, candy by the pound, etc. Not good at all.

Considering the research recently that has shown sugar is just as if not more in come cases addictive than cocaine it’s no wonder we crave it.

Oreos as ‘addictive’ as cocaine in lab rat study

But researchers also found that the rats eating Oreos experienced more pleasure than the animals being injected with drugs, as measured by activation changes in the nucleus accumbens.

The Rats Who Preferred Sugar Over Cocaine

That’s right, in a fascinating study, most of the critters studied – a whopping 94 percent – wanted sugar or saccharin, not cocaine

No more excuses

Mon, 15 Sep 2014 00:18:52 -0400

After shattering my kneecap in December, I lost a lot of motivation in regards to my health. Before the injury, I was in the best shape that I have been in a very long time.

As a way to cope with the added stress, I turned to food. The amount of comfort food that I ate was ridiculous. I went from having relatively little belly fat to stomach that I’d rather not admit to this day. My current weight is 164 pounds as of September 14.

Things need to change. I tried lowering my calories and did not change the type of calories that I eat. I know this isn’t the right way to do it. Little snacks here in there and candy at work has been counterproductive. No more excuses.

Starting tomorrow, September 15, 2014, I will start eating full throttle Paleo. This is work for me in the past. Due to the sheer rate of how fast my body converts carbohydrates into excess fat, I’m confident that I have metabolic syndrome. I no longer have the luxury of eating excessive processed foods, refined carbohydrates, and sugar-based products. In order to maintain good health I have to eat whole foods, meats and vegetables, and cook for myself as much as possible.

Today I choose to change. With my diet, the way I eat, it is all or nothing. Doing otherwise just doesn’t work. I can do this. I can get back in shape. I won’t let one accident hold me back.

In order to stay motivated, I am going to make the effort to blog more often. Here’s to better health.

Winning at Chipotle. I usually ask them to put the sour cream in...

Wed, 04 Jun 2014 13:03:19 -0400

Winning at Chipotle. I usually ask them to put the sour cream in a cup so I can divide it in half. Either way the salad bowl without dressing is a great meal. The dressing alone is 270 calories of “vinaigrette”.

Can we just get real for a minute?

Tue, 20 May 2014 19:09:00 -0400

In a desire for change, I decided to go for a shade of strawberry blonde. Not sure if I will keep it but I’ve enjoyed trying something different. I’ve had a myriad of responses: “I love it!”, “OMG. What did you do to your hair?”, and everything in between.

I’m a designer. I’m gay. I have no shame in either fact. Yet it still amazes me how many designers or gays are judgmental. Part of being a great designer is always refining your world. Perfectionism is a natural tendency because you always expect better. I judge myself.

To be real, real honest, there have been times where I have to check myself not to have an emotional response to feedback. Whether it be external or even internal.

When I shattered my kneecap in December that made it very difficult to work out. I put on extra weight. Part of this was emotional eating and a good portion of it was immobility. Even now, months later, I’m finding it more difficult to keep up with the routine that I had before. I get tired easily. Sometimes I slip up and let my emotions talk me out of the very routine that will help me physically improve.

Empathy is something the world could use more of. Myself included. Take a pause. Step back and look at the whole. Get to the “why” of the matter. “Oh wow, he put on a ton of weight. Lazy. Tisk.” Perhaps, there were underlying circumstances that affected that outcome.

Going back to design, creating a great user experience is similar. Instead of looking at something one dimensionally, try to find the root cause. What is the user really trying to accomplish, struggling with, etc.

I’m still working on my goals.

However, I’m doing a heavy dose of soul searching to figure out why my actions have been counteractive to my good intentions.

I won’t give up. I can’t. It just may take longer than I anticipated.

Plus, ugh, cupcakes.

Tired yet push. Gym done!

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 21:52:49 -0400

So tired but I finished my workout. Sometimes I feel as if they aren’t good enough compared to those lifting the heavy stuff. Then I remind myself that I’m working on my core or baseline. Injury set me back but I’m doing just as I should in this moment. My workout is good enough for the stage that I’m at now. As is.

In order to maintain a healthy weight, I end up cooking a lot....

Mon, 14 Apr 2014 17:55:50 -0400

In order to maintain a healthy weight, I end up cooking a lot. This is a great lifehack on how to cut cherry tomatoes in half.